ANAC is the national regulatory authority in charge of the regulations, supervision and control of civil aviation activities in accordance with the principles of the ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization). Since 1959, Burkina Faso is a member of the ASECNA (Agence pour la Sécurité de la Navigation Aérienne en Afrique et à Madagascar) composed of seventeen (17) African states members. ASECNA’s main mission is to provide air navigation services, aeronautical information services and aeronautical meteorology services.

Burkina Faso has a total of forty-seven (47) airfields however only few of them are operational like Fada N’Gouma and used by private airline companies (transportation of passengers working in the mine sector for example). Direction Aérodromes Navigation Aérienne Sureté (DANAS) is the department in charge to do airfield assessment (last one was conducted in 2016) however due to the current insecurity situation in country, this activity is still on hold.

List of airfields in Burkina Faso are available here.

Only Ouagadougou and Bobo Dioulasso are classified as international airports and represent the main point of entry and exit of the country. However, Ouagadougou airport represents 89% of the airline traffic. Then, since 2017, the government has launched the construction of a new airport Ouagadougou -Donsin located 35 km from the capital to meet the continuous increase of the traffic with an opening scheduled in 2024.

Source: Google Maps and Burkina24.com

For more information on government agency and airport company contact information, please see the following links: 4.1 Government Contact List and 4.5 Airport Companies Contact List.

Procedures for Foreign Registered Aircraft

For information on procedures for foreign registered aircraft, the ANAC - under its DEA (Direction Exploitation des Aéronefs) subdivision - is in charge to grant an air operator’s certificate (AOC) according to the nature of request. However, the requester needs to do an official registration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs whom will liaise in parallel with the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Security to obtain all the necessary clearance to operate in Burkina Faso.

Below information are extracted from the Aeronautical Information Publications  published by ASECNA and related to Burkina Faso.

Link to General 1.2 Overflight and Landing on the aerodrome document

According to the New Article 114 of Civil Aviation Code, the aircraft registered in a foreign State are not allowed to operate activities against remuneration in Burkina Faso that only in accordance with agreements or Conventions signed between the Government of Burkina and the registration state or under the terms of a special and temporary authorization granted by the Minister in charge of Civil Aviation. In case of no agreement, no convention or authorization indicating the nature of expected activities, an aircraft registered in a foreign State must obtain, before coming in Burkina Faso, (…), a request for authorization to one the following organisms for the civils aircraft:

• Either directly to the Ministry in charge of Civil Aviation (D.A.C)
• Either to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in charge of dispatching them to the Ministry in charge of Civil Aviation (D.A.C)

The requests dispatched by ways others that those of the AFTN (Aeronautical Fixed Telecommunication Network) will be addressed at least seven (7) working days before the expected arrival date of the aircraft in Burkina.

The requests dispatched by AFTN network will be transmitted 72 working hours before the expected arrival date. This delay may be reduced to 48 working hours when they are concerned with transport for humanitarian purposes or in case of imperative needs.

Regarding any aircraft registered in a foreign State that wants to come in Burkina at the ends of tourism or other activities not remunerated, as well as any aircraft registered in a foreign State that wants only to fly over the territory of Burkina Republic or to perform technical stopovers, these aircraft must conform in accordance with international agreements or Conventions, to the present arrangement while providing the following information in their request:

• Type of aircraft
• Registration Mark
• Flight number or Call Sign
• Name of Operator and address
• Aircraft Owner (in case of chartering)
• Name and nationality of the aircraft commander
• Crew Number, names and nationality
• Complete routes (aerodrome departure, intermediate stopovers, arrival/departure aerodrome in BURKINA, final destination)
• Cargo (nature and cargo quantity, passengers’ number)
• Flight purpose